Category Archives: Federal Law

Conant v. Walters: Physicians have a First Amendment right to discuss cannabis with patients — not to help them obtain it.

The order enjoins the federal government from either revoking a physician’s license to prescribe controlled substances or conducting an investigation of a physician that might lead to such revocation, where the basis for the government’s action is solely the physician’s professional “recommendation” of the use of medical marijuana. Continue reading Physicians’ First Amendment right to recommend cannabis→

U.S. vs. McIntosh

In the opinion of U.S. vs. McIntosh, written by Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, the court held that the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, recently passed by Congress and signed by the President, prohibits federal prosecution of conduct that is allowed by the state’s medical cannabis law.

In the August 16, 2016 opinion, Judge O’Scannlain wrote:

“We therefore conclude that, at a minimum, § 542 prohibits DOJ from spending funds from relevant appropriations acts for the prosecution of individuals who engaged in conduct permitted by the State Medical Marijuana Laws and who fully complied with such laws.”

Gonzalez v. Raich

The text of the 2005 US Supreme Court decision reversing the 2003 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the Interstate Commerce Clause of the US Constitution does not reach medical marijuana when it is cultivated and used within a state where it is legal and for purposes of non-commercial personal use.